Luis Rubiales and Risto Mejide share reflections on fatherhood
Risto Mejide shares with Luis Rubiales how fatherhood changed his outlook on life
Risto Mejide is honest with Jorge Drexler like never before: “I’m not fine”
Luis Rubiales and Risto Mejide shared in ‘Traveling with Chester’ how fatherhood has changed their lives. The president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation had been moved by talking to him about his three daughters and was interested in the presenter’s children. At that moment, Risto Mejide expressed to him with a metaphor the greatness of what he feels in his father’s facet.
“My ex-wife and I divorced 11 years ago, but I think we have done very well as a couple,” Luis Rubiales had told him. “I think you can fail as a couple and succeed as a parent,” Risto agreed. “I’m very lucky with my daughter. You too, right? Do they look like you?” the RFEF president wondered. “No, they surpass me,” Risto replied.

The presenter then went on to explain to Rubiales how his life had changed. “Now I travel by plane and when there is turbulence I always have a bad time. Before I was worried that I would die thinking about falling etc. Ever since I have these two wonderful children I think ‘I have already done what I had to do’. What I am is selfish saying, I know,” he said.
“For me, fatherhood is like living in an apartment. Your ‘inner self’ is an apartment. And suddenly you discover that there is a door: that is being a father. And you discover that what is behind that door is bigger than the entire floor in which you lived. That is what I have felt. Everything that is behind that door, it does not occur to you to think, you do not remember or you do not imagine how you lived before, “reflected Risto Mejide.

Rubiales fully agreed with him. He added that for him fatherhood had also made him “know love differently, but also fear.” As an example, he shared with the presenter the biggest scare he had had in his life: the day one of her daughters had an accident in which she almost lost her life.